tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28751902.post2564269488434547291..comments2024-03-26T02:31:48.024-05:00Comments on Trollsmyth: Story Bricks and Volotrollsmythhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01895349218958093151noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28751902.post-15574477028882501102016-10-24T10:15:14.426-05:002016-10-24T10:15:14.426-05:00Artifice: Volo's might spark creativity in new...<b>Artifice:</b> Volo's might spark creativity in new DMs, but it might also just bore them to tears with pedantic details that don't really matter. WotC still hasn't embraced any sort of efficiency in its aesthetic, even as they've realized that gaming groups treat new stuff the ways soldiers treat new gear: if they can't find an immediate use for it, it's just extra weight and gets left behind when the mission starts. <br /><br />An in-depth, how-to-make-the-most and how-to-subvert-expected-tropes guide to the monsters would be awesome. But Volo's looks too much like "here's some amusing repartee that restates a lot of what's in the MM." Granted, we've only seen a few pages, but so far I'm thinking this is more a bunt and not even a double, forget hitting it out of the park. <br /><br /><b>Ripper X:</b> :p and ;Dtrollsmythhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01895349218958093151noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28751902.post-1588386266772175952016-10-20T20:05:45.669-05:002016-10-20T20:05:45.669-05:00Hey now, the 90's was a good time to be a game...Hey now, the 90's was a good time to be a gamer! I love my copies of The Complete Torch Bearers Handbook, Van Richton's Guide to Harpies, and that one adventure where you got to call the 800 number at the end of the module and hear a special message from Elminster himself, for just $4.95 per minute! (Don't forget to get your parents permission)<br /><br />RipperXhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03506064393275174920noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28751902.post-27233109426077237572016-10-20T19:14:08.934-05:002016-10-20T19:14:08.934-05:00I agree on all points, including the fact that I&#...I agree on all points, including the fact that I'll buy it.<br /><br />But they're likely writing for the newly initiated, not the old and grizzled. Some people can read a 1e stat block and come up with twenty hooks, but most people go "oh, Very Rare, 1-4 appear..." as their eyes glaze over and they drift off to the next block. Something like <i>Volo's</i> might spark some creativity in newer DMs, as well as ones that never really broke out of the standard descriptions. Showing people that there's options will hopefully be a good thing.<br /><br />It's a long road from Strategic Review #1 to Zak's monologue on Mind Flayers, and I think something like <i>Volo's</i> will be a better bridge than what came before. It's not going to revolutionize the blogosphere or up-end grognards everywhere, but it might help Joe Blow and his buddies who are playing alone in the University quad. Those guys aren't out looking for interesting gaming blogs, they're just trying to play the game.<br /><br />What really grabbed me is that D&D is held prisoner by it's own lineage and tropes. That couldn't be more true. As soon as Mearls and company can break out of <i>that</i> mold, there'll be real room for movement and improvement. I'm guessing it'll happen around half-past-never, unfortunately.Artificehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02374794768184880996noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28751902.post-75940638077272860052016-10-20T17:04:11.630-05:002016-10-20T17:04:11.630-05:00And I'm a bigger fan of Elminster than most (l...And I'm a bigger fan of Elminster than most (largely, I think, because I stopped paying attention to him when he stopped by Ed Greenwood's alter ego on the pages of DRAGON). I do like the idea that the argument between Elminster and Volo means that the DM gets to pick which, if either, is correct; in a book like this, having unreliable narrators is only good.trollsmythhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01895349218958093151noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28751902.post-74784629949662126832016-10-20T16:07:12.717-05:002016-10-20T16:07:12.717-05:00Agreed. But some of the implied setting material ...Agreed. But some of the implied setting material in the Monster Manual was quite evocative, even if I did not use it for my campaign world. I doubt that anything involving Elmister (a character I deeply dislike) could improve upon the simple elegance of what the MM presented and then allowed you to use, or not, as you choose.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com